


A Very Merry Wrestlemas

by storyranger



Series: A Boy and His (Big) Dog [4]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: 2016 World Juniors, Centre Bell, Multi, Other, Random Encounters, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 18:18:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9397304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyranger/pseuds/storyranger
Summary: Sami's hometown is hosting the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championships, and the gang buys him tickets. Can eight wrestlers really go on a roadtrip without killing each other?(Yes. Yes they can.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:  
> Set between the December 26th 2016 and January 2nd 2017 episodes of Raw. I just want my Ginger Montreal Baby to be happy, goddammit.  
> I know the timelines on the stories in this specific series got a little overlapping and weird, but we’re now mostly moving forward through time without doubling back, I promise.

December was rough on Sami Zayn. The chaotic reports about the civil war in his native Syria were hitting him hard, and his feud with the monstrous Braun Strowman was hitting him harder. It became a mission for his friends to try and cheer him up, and what better way could there be to cheer up a hockey-crazed Canuck than to buy him tickets to the World Juniors, especially when Canada was hosting?

“Welp, I think Canada versus Latvia is out.” Cass flips his phone around, showing Enzo the price for the cheapest seats left.

Enzo whistles and shakes his head. “Fuck bro. Canadians like their hockey.”

“I think, like, every game in Toronto is more expensive,” points out Roman, gesturing to his laptop screen. He has the Centre Bell and Air Canada Center websites up said-by-side, and sure enough Montreal is significantly cheaper. Roman refrains from pointing out he could solve all of this neatly by paying for the whole thing; hell, he could probably buy all of them seats to the finals, even if Canada was in them, and still have money left over for souvenirs. He gets why it’s important to the other three to contribute, though. He’d have balked four years ago if someone swooped in and tried to Daddy Warbucks a communal gift _he’d_ thought of, and he wasn’t going to do that to Enzo.

Dean cuts in with, “so we pick a game in Montreal. No big deal.”

“Even if Canada won’t be in it?” queries Cass.

“It’s still hockey, right? And Sami hates Toronto. Probably be happier.”

No one argues with Dean on this. He is, after all, the only one of the four of them who actually watches hockey.

“We could do Czech Republic vs Switzerland- wait, shit, that’s on Tuesday.” Enzo says, dismissing the option immediately.

“You can go without me, I said it was fine-”

“Forget it, Dean, we’re not about to leave you out of this.” Enzo’s tone is firm.

“Fine.”

Cass looks up from his phone, the calculator app showing numbers which are apparently to his liking. “Hell, if we did Denmark vs The Czechs we could probably afford a few extra tickets.”

Enzo nods excitedly. “That’d be good, bring Bayley and Sasha along too.”

“Thursday afternoon, gives us all plenty of time to get there and to get home if people want to spend New Year’s with their families,” Roman adds.

“Book ’em before the price can go up,” is all Dean has to say.

 

***

 

They tell Sami in the hotel after _Raw_ tapes for the week. Dean’s not there, but he’d made it clear that they should do this part Monday night so Sami didn’t make other plans. Sami’s still riding high from ambushing Braun Strowman, and if he’s at all worried about retaliation, he doesn’t show it.

“We noticed you’ve been a bit down lately and we wanted to bring you back up,” is Enzo’s explanation as he hands over a manila envelope. Sami looks confused as he pulls out a sheaf of paper, each printout identical except for the name neatly Sharpied in the corner. Then he takes the time to read the top page carefully and whoops.

“You’re fucking kidding me!”

“Merry Christmas, Sami,” says Cass, with his trademark slow, shy grin. “From all of us.”

“You’re serious?! You guys actually got World Juniors tickets?”

“Dean chipped in too,” adds Roman quickly, “but it was Enzo’s idea.” Credit where it’s due, and the little guy seriously knocked it out of the park this time.

“And you’re really going to come with me?”

“What kind of bros would we be if we sent you off to have fun all by yourself?” asks Enzo.

“Fuck, you guys are going to love Montreal. This is going to be the best roadtrip ever!”

 

***

 

There’s enough of them that they need to take two cars. Enzo calls dibs on driving with Sami, and Cass goes where Enzo goes. Sasha and Bayley want to stick together and are pretty attached to the concept of roadtrip quiet-time, and Sami’s pretty insistent that Dean and Roman should ride with him. It’s a little unevenly distributed, but no one really minds. The boys rent a mini-van, and the girls opt for a smaller (and cheaper) hatchback.

If Dean overhears Sasha checking that the rental company allows customers to bring pets in the car despite not owning one herself, he keeps it quiet.

They leave at a ludicrously early hour on Wednesday, practically Tuesday night, because Chicago to Montreal is already a 12 hour drive and Sami is determined to leave a substantial buffer in case of bad weather. Roman’s driving the first shift, with Dean riding shotgun and Cass relishing the extra legroom of the van’s middle row. Sami has the other middle seat and Enzo, mercifully silent at this hour, is stretched across the back seat, asleep.

If Cass is suspicious of how Bayley and Sasha are _both_ sending him snapchats from their car when theoretically one of them needs to be driving, he says nothing.

 

Roman’s a stubborn one, and would probably drive the whole twelve hours without stopping just because he could. Dean is valiantly trying to stay awake next to him, but he’s starting to fade fast. He was the only one of the five who had to wrestle last night, and it shows in the grey under his eyes and the slight sagging of his shoulder. Roman pulls into a gas station and Cass quietly nudges Enzo awake so the four of them can trade places. Sami is asleep, and to their credit they manage not to wake him up. Enzo begins murmuring a steady stream of commentary to Cass, but he’s keeping his voice low enough that it fades into the background, becoming just another of the many sounds that makes up the familiar rhythm of the road.

Dean and Roman are both in the back seat now. Dean’s fidgety, despite his exhaustion; the hours of being cooped up in the car are beginning to wear on him, and they’re not even halfway there. Roman puts an arm around him and pulls him a little closer, weaving his fingers into the other man’s unruly mop of hair. Dean settles again Roman’s chest and falls asleep almost instantly.

Roman continues running a lazy hand through Dean’s hair, savouring the moment. It’s so rare that Dean is still enough for Roman to study him like this, memorizing the freckles and scars so easy to miss on hands that move ceaselessly when awake.

 

He doesn’t realise he’s dozing off too until he jerks awake an hour later, Dean still pressed against him and sound asleep. They’re stopped at a gate, and Roman blearily realizes it’s the Canadian border. Cass is talking to the border guard, a friendly-looking man with blond hair and no gun. Roman drops a kiss onto Dean’s forehead, looking wistfully at the serene look on his sleeping face for a moment before gently nudging him awake.

“Hey.”

Dean sits up stiffly, rolling his shoulders to stretch out the cramped muscles. “How long was I out?”

“Probably an hour. We’re at the border. Need your passport.”

Dean nods and pulls a battered passport out of his jacket pocket, handing it up to Cass before settling back against Roman. His fingers find his way to Roman’s and Roman gives a gentle squeeze back, knowing how antsy dealing with law enforcement makes him.

Eventually the guard hands the passports back, and waves them on their way with a cheerful “enjoy your stay, eh?”

 

Sami takes over just past Toronto. Dean and Enzo both offer to drive instead, but Sami insists. He has a deep-seated Canadian mistrust of non-Canadians’ winter driving skills, and the weather is getting worse. If it’s going to make Sami more comfortable, no one’s going to argue.

Enzo stays in the shotgun seat, and Cass switches back to the middle and immediately disappears into a book. Dean’s still tired, and he goes back to sleep within minutes of the car starting to move again. Up front, Sami and Enzo are debating the merits of arena versus club spaces for concerts. Roman pulls out his laptop and puts on a movie. The amiable background chatter and the comforting weight of Dean against his side are the perfect additions right now.

If Roman suddenly wishes they could have brought just one more person along, he pushes the thought away as quickly as it came.

 

***

 

The secret as to how Bayley and Sasha are sending snapchats at the same time is that neither of them is actually driving. That task falls to Seth Rollins, and it’s his dog that Bayley is currently cuddling enthusiastically in the back seat.

Not being included in the initial plans hadn’t bothered Seth. Just because Dean and Roman had forgiven him didn’t automatically mean the rest of the roster had. Sami was _far_ from his biggest fan, and Enzo was still pretty wary of him despite Cass coming around. He was perfectly happy to not make things awkward and to avoid freezing his ass off in a hockey arena, thank you very much.

But Sasha wanted to spend some time together and Bayley wanted to hang out with (and vet) her best friend’s new… _friend_. He had to admit that a roadtrip with those two sounded more fun than videogames alone in his apartment for a week, so he agreed to come along as an extra driver. He’d figure out something else to do while they were at the game.

Bringing Kevin along was his only stipulation. (He definitely didn’t see his dog enough.) So far, based on the fact that Bayley and Kevin couldn’t stay away from each other, he figures his performance evaluation is going pretty well.

“Are you sure you don’t want to switch?” Sasha asks after they cross the border. It took them a while because they got an apologetic new guard fresh out of training who had no idea how to deal with Kevin’s vaccine paperwork.They’re now about 30 minutes behind the others, but Seth’s confident he can make up the time.

“I’m good.” Seth glances down pointedly at her knee, still heavily braced over her leggings.

“I’m cleared to drive,” she declares, “but I meant Bayley.”

They both glance at the back seat, where Bayley is absorbed in a comic book, a sleeping Kevin in her lap.

“I’m good,” he says again, and this time Sasha nods and takes out her phone.

Bayley ends up driving the last three hours of the trip, because Sasha notices him favouring his good leg when they stop for gas and insists. Seth stretches out across the back seat and passes out. Kevin settles on his chest, and if you think Sasha didn’t take 20 photos of the cuteness for personal amusement and future blackmail, well, that’s why you’re not The Boss.

 

***

The hotel fucked up their booking. This wasn’t new, but it’s slightly more annoying when it’s happening to them directly, not just as an inevitable error when management books dozens of rooms at once. They’d asked for two doubles, but the hotel is overbooked and only has one room left. A single king-sized bed on the top floor, and the ditz on the front desk actually had the audacity to try to charge them extra for the “upgrade”. Sasha sets _that_ straight with a few strong words to the manager, and earns them a discount for her trouble.

It wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t the floor, or their cars, and so they troop up to the room and toss their luggage inside without further argument. The guys are all staying at Sami’s, and there was literally no room left in his apartment for the girls to stay there.

It’s a massive room, Seth has to give it that, and it’s not like he and Sasha were planning on any funny business with Bayley sharing the room. If he could manage to share a double with The Big Dog, a king with these two would be easy.

Bayley flops on the bed, and Kevin hops up next to her, begging for head scratches. She complies, pulling out her phone and tapping accept on an incoming FaceTime call.

“Finn!” she squeals, excited, shifting her phone so Finn can see the little Yorkie she’s currently petting.

“Bayley! You get there safe?”

“You know it.”

 “I know you’re probably tired but I finished the TIE Fighter today and I really, really wanted to show you.”

“Nah, I’m not tired. Seth drove most of the way. Show me!”

Seth can’t help but gravitate closer to the bed, curious to see Finn’s latest creation. He may have jumped from Lego to videogames a while back, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still super interested in what other people make.

The image on Bayley’s phone shakes and blurs for a minute, before it coalesces into a sleek black-and-grey space ship, with Finn’s thumbs-up next to it for scale. Seth’s a little jealous.

“That’s really cool, Finn,” says a low voice, and when Bayley turns around with a grin Seth realizes it’s his.

“The Man himself,” Finn says with a smile. “How’s murdering Triple H coming along?”

“Oh, you know. Few minion fights to clear before the final boss.”  
“You know, I think I almost miss you, you bastard.”

Seth can’t help but smirk at this. “Get back here soon and I’ll save you one of Kevin Owen’s limbs to destroy.”

“Two limbs, and you don’t interfere when I fight Reigns.”

“Deal.”

“Then I’ll see what I can do,” Finn concludes, and there’s a ghost of a frown on his face before the smile comes back in full force.

Seth leaves them to talk, and decides to take a shower. Their bathroom is incredible, with one of those fancy showers with multiple heads and far too many settings. He steps under the hot water and methodically begins his washing routine, the tension in his shoulders slowly releasing.

By the time he dries off and changes into soft black pants, Sasha has acquired Thai food and Bayley has finished up her call. Sasha is using her fork to make a point, and Bayley has her face buried in a pillow, muffled embarrassed giggles coming from the general vicinity of her head.

“I don’t want to know,” he declares emphatically, grabbing one of the other containers and digging in.

Bayley regains her composure and shoots him a grateful look.

“This convo is not over,” Sasha warns, but she lets it drop for now.

 

They wake up in a tangle of limbs, and it’s somehow not awkward at all. Breakfast is quiet, everyone waking up at their own pace, and then Bayley and Sasha grab a subway map from the front desk and head off to Sami’s apartment. Seth asks the concierge if there’s a Crossfit gym nearby, and when the answer is yes he grabs his wallet and a towel and heads off. Even if he can’t speak French, there’s something universal about Crossfit. He’ll be just fine.

 

***

 

Apparently Canada only has 20 people in it, because when they find their seats at the Bell Centre, who’s sitting in the next seat over?

Elise.

She looks up when Roman sits down beside her, indifferent at first but then she does a double take and realises who it is.

“Roman?”

“Hey, Elise.” He smiles at her. She smiles back, and something’s different. It’s not the purple lipstick; she’s worn that at work sometimes. No, it’s…

“Wait, your hair…?” He stares, confused, at the miraculously regrown hair on the right side.

“It’s still shaved.” She tucks it behind her ear for a second and a small triangle of the buzzed section suddenly because visible. “Family doesn’t know I’m queer as hell, prefer not to tip ’em off.”

“You’re family’s here, then?”

“We’re the whole rest of this row.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. My uncle, aunt, their six kids, my mom, my cousin’s girlfriend, and another uncle. For free, too. My uncle knows a guy.”

“Sweet.”

The conversation lapses for a second, until a little girl, about 8 or 9, runs up to Elise with a bag of popcorn.

“Daddy let us get snacks!” she exclaims, as Elise scoops her into her lap.

“Oh wow, Holly. That’s great.” She gives the kid a quick hug, then takes a handful of the popcorn and nudges Holly towards the rest of their family. Holly stops to offer the bag to Roman, who politely takes a handful and thanks her before she shyly darts off to sit with her brothers.

“Hey Roman, who’s your friend there?” asks Sami, and Elise looks startled to be acknowledged.

“Elise, this is Sami. Elise is one of the _Raw_ crew members.”

“And _Smackdown_. I do security for the shows, mostly front-of-house crowd control. Keep the streakers and the weirdos at bay, that sort of thing. They don’t let me backstage much. Something about my height or my genitals.” There’s a bitter note in her voice that Sami can’t help but notice. Underdogs can sense each other a mile off.

“Oooo, are we being snarky feminists again? Cause I can play too,” pipes up the teenager on Elise’s left.

“Shannon, these are guys from work.”

“Oh, the sexist assholes who try to boss you around even though you’ve been licenced longer then them?”

“Shannon! No! The other ones!”

“Oh. Well, cool. You should pay her $40 instead of $20. Rising cost of living and all that.”

“Shannon!”

“What?”

“She’s probably right.” Roman chuckles. “I’ll tell Dean that your asking price has gone up”

“And you pay her to do what, exactly?” Sami’s face is a mixture of confusion and concern.

“Not that!” Roman says quickly, as Elise makes retching sounds and Shannon begins laughing her ass off. “I, she, we-”

“-have an arrangement where I let him break the rules as long as I get paid my share. It pisses my boss off to no end, but he’s never managed to catch me. That’s a bonus.”

Music begins to fill the arena, and the crowd around them begins to erupt in cheers as players take the ice. Sami is shaking his head, but his lecture about rules being essential for fairness dies on his lips as he gets swept up in the magic. Dean finally comes back from Concessions with a pack of Starbursts and bumps Sami down a seat so he can sit next to Roman. Elise and Shannon are ranking player’s haircuts from best to ~~Guy Lafleur~~ worst.

 

It’s an amazing game, and overtime has them glued to the edges of their seats. Every so often Cass, Enzo, Roman, and Dean sneak looks at Sami, and his bouncing knees and shining eyes tell them that this was worth every penny. When Denmark scores and breaks the tie, Elise and half of her cousins begin whooping, and the others sigh and cheer politely.

(“They have lions on their jerseys” she’d say later, when someone asked why she picked them.

“And better hair.” Shannon would add, and Elise would elbow her until they both broke down laughing.)

Sami had also picked Denmark, for more thought-out reasons. Dean was cheering whoever was in the lead, and now he high-fives Sami and Enzo, who picked Denmark solely on the basis that Cass had picked the Czechs.

“Roman, you should invite your friend to come out with us tonight,” Sami tells him, as they’re gathering their stuff to leave. Roman nods and turns to find her in the crowd of people leaving their section, picking her out halfway up the stairs and catching up with her just as she reaches the top. She whirls defensively when he taps her on the shoulder, relaxing when she realises it’s just him.

“Sami wants you to come drink with us tonight,” he says.

“I have to check the bus schedules. I promised Hughy I’d go over and play Lego Batman with him. I’ll text you?”

“You have my number?”

“As long as you haven’t changed it since 2013. Se- … Rollins gave it to me.”

“Elise?!” calls a high pitched voice from the crowd, and Elise winces.

“Gotta go. I’ll text you.”

“Sure-” begins Roman, but before he can say anything else she’s gone.

 

***

 

This time they’re in Sami’s city, so unlike Ottawa, he’s a lot more relaxed about how they should spend their time. No itineraries, no checklists; Sami’s couch is calling him, and unless you have something you want to see and need a guide, that’s where he’ll stay. The exception is going for drinks at Le Sainte-Elisabeth, which Sami absolutely insists on.

Elise does join them, and ends up tipsily offering Roman and Dean her pull-out couch when she hears they’re sleeping on the floor at Sami’s. (Enzo and his bruised-to-hell ass rightfully had dibs on the futon.) They accept partly because Dean wants to make sure she gets home safe, (“She could probably kick your ass, Dean,” chides Roman, but doesn’t argue with him) and partly because they both really do like the idea of not being on the ground. Everyone but Elise and Dean gets way more drunk then strictly necessary, but not so drunk they’re sloppy, and it ends up being a really fun night.

They set up the futon while Elise finds the spare sheets, and it’s only then that Dean bites his lip and asks if they should really be sharing. “I could sleep on the floor. It’d be fine.”

“People crash at people’s places and share futons all the time, Dean. She’s not going to get suspicious over it.”

“One of us rolls over in the night, suddenly it looks suspicious.”

“Dean. It’s Elise. Remember, the stubborn girl in a male-dominated field who buzzes half her head and makes us pay her with fritters? Pretty sure she’s not going to say anything even if she does see something.”

“Okay.”

 

***

 

They clear out of Elise’s fairly early, folding the futon back up despite her assurances she could manage herself. Sasha and Bayley are at one of the big malls downtown, and Roman is determined to make Dean buy a shirt that isn’t faded, holey, or stained.

Dean stops whining somewhere around the 4th metro stop enroute when Roman promises to pay for it.

 

Meanwhile, Bayley and Sasha have found a Sephora, and Sasha is currently collaborating with the consultant on a makeover for Bayley. Seth is awkwardly trying to pretend like he belongs here, but truthfully he’s bored and kind of freaked by how many _things_ there are to put on your face.

“I’m never going to be able to do this myself,” protests Bayley, as the consultant blends multiple shades of foundation to match her skin tone properly.

“You have The Boss here to teach you, girl. You’re not leaving till you’ve bought three things that _aren’t_ black eyeliner.”

“This is going to be a while.” Bayley gives Seth an apologetic look, and Sasha sighs.

“You’d better go bother Roman, Seth. Someone might try to put glitter in your beard.”

Seth flees.

 

Roman and Dean have already found several shirts, two that Dean is even willing to buy himself, and have moved on to the pants section. Seth arrives just in time to persuade Dean to try on a pair of skinny jeans, convincing him he needs to earn the right to make fun of Seth for wearing them. Dean looks in the mirror and predictably insists they’re stupid.

Roman grabs the discarded pair when no one’s looking and slips it in with his own purchases. Something tells him he’s going to want to make Dean try them on again, just to be sure they don’t work. Definitely not just so he can ogle Dean’s butt in them.

Definitely not.

 

***

 

If Sami Zayn wonders where the dog in multiple snapchats from Bayley came from, or how the girls were impossibly energetic at the game despite theoretically driving 12 hours between the two of them, or why Dean and Roman stammer a bit over their stories at dinner about how they spent their day, he doesn’t say anything.

 

Because the truth is, Sami knows Seth’s been there the whole time. Because it was Sami who said he should come. A short, clipped, aggressively neutral text sent a few hours after they surprised him with the tickets, when Sami figured out the direction the vehicle arrangements were headed and feared Sasha might not be cleared to drive by then, leaving all the responsibility for driving their car on Bayley's shoulders.

 

**_unknown number: ask Sasha what she’s doing this weekend_ **

**_unknown number: if she says she’s going to Montreal_ **

**_unknown number: ask her if she needs an extra driver._ **

 

More instructions then an invite, and Seth was okay to follow them.

Sami may not like Seth, but if having Seth around means he keeps his friends safe?

The more the fucking merrier.

**Author's Note:**

> So are Seth and Sami cool now?  
> No fucking way, it'd ruin all my fun.


End file.
